STUDY: Being exposed to bad or stressful news --> choosing more high-calorie foods

Being exposed to news about tough economic times, seemingly endless wars, or gun violence can lead people to consume more high-calorie foods, according to a study published in Psychological Science . Researchers at the University of Miami carried out three experiments to see if people exposed to cues that they are living in a harsh world feel that resources are scarce and therefore choose to eat high-calorie, filling foods that would be more likely to sustain them. In each experiment, people who were exposed to posters or words on a computer screen associated with a harsh environment were more likely to choose higher-calorie foods than people exposed to neutral or pleasurable words. In one experiment, students were given portions of M&Ms to eat. While all the M&Ms were the same, some of the students were told that they were a special high-calorie version made with hard-to-...